Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/207

Book II.

⌊The second book is made up mostly of hymns of 5 verses each. It contains 22 such hymns, but also five hymns (namely, 3, 4, 14, 15, and 32) of 6 verses each, five hymns (namely, 5, 17, 27, 29, and 33) of 7 verses each, and four hymns (namely, 10, 12, 24, and 36) of 8 verses each. Compare page 1. The possibilities of critical reduction to the norm are well illustrated by hymns 10, 12, 14, 27; see, for example, the critical notes to ii. 10. 2.

The whole book has been translated by Weber in the Monatsberichte der Kön. Akad. der Wiss. zu Berlin, June, 1870, pages 462-524. This translation was reprinted, with only slight changes, in Indische Studien, vol. xiii. (1873), pages 129-216. The following references to Weber have to do with the reprint.⌋

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1. Mystic.

[Vena.—brahmātmadāivatam. trāiṣṭubham: 3. jagatī.]

Found in Pāipp. ii., and parts of it in other texts, as pointed out under the several verses. ⌊Von Schroeder gives what may be called a Kaṭha-recension of nearly all of it in his Tübinger Kaṭha-hss., pp. 88, 89.⌋ Used by Kāuç. (37. 3) in addressing various articles out of whose behavior afterward signs of success or the contrary, and the like oracular responses, are to be drawn (the comm. gives them in a more expanded detail). And Vāit. (29. 14) applies vs. 3 in the upavasatha rite of the agnicayana.

Translated: Weber, xiii. 129; Ludwig, p. 393; Scherman, Philosophische Hymnen, p. 82; Deussen, Geschichte, i.¹ 253; Griffith, i. 41.

1 . Vena (the longing one?) saw that which is highest in secret, where everything becomes of one form; this the spotted one (pṛ́çni) milked [when] born; the heaven-(svàr-)knowing troops (vrá) have shouted at it.

A bit of labored obscurity, like the verses that follow; books iv. and v. begin similarly; no attempt will be made here to solve the riddles. The comm. explains at great length (nine 4to pages), but evidently without any traditional or other understanding; he guesses and etymologizes this way and that, giving in part wholly discordant alternative interpretations. In this verse he first takes véna as = Āditya; and then, after a complete exposition on this basis, he says: yadvā: venaḥ parjanyātmā madhyamasthāno devaḥ, and gives another; pṛçni to him is "the common name of sky and sun." The translation given implies emendation in c of jā́yamānās to -nā; but the epithet might belong to vrā́s (so Ludwig and the comm.), or be the second object of aduhat (so Weber). The variants of the parallel versions of other texts make the impression (as often in other cases) of rather aimless stumbling over matters not understood.

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